BRPD: Home invasion suspect linked to third BR break-in

BRPD: Home invasion suspect linked to third BR break-in

New Iberia man accused in string of BR home invasions

An ex-convict accused in a string of Baton Rouge home invasions has been tied to another break-in by a smudge of forensic evidence he left on a broken pane of glass.

The suspect, Vorris Mouton, a serial burglar from New Iberia, faces a new felony count in the Dec. 29 break-in of a home on Wartelle Drive, the authorities said Friday, a case that was not initially listed among the home invasions police believed to be related.

Mouton, 35, has been implicated in three break-ins in the Capital City, and authorities are investigating his possible involvement in several others. He was previously linked to a Dec. 22 home invasion on Reymond Drive, in which he threatened to kill a homeowner, and a Jan. 17 burglary and sexual battery on Dartmoor Drive, in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood.

In the Dec. 29 burglary, Mouton is accused of breaking a window and manipulating the lock on the inside. The noise woke a 53-year-old woman and her 76-year-old mother inside.

The younger woman got up to investigate the noise and spotted an intruder wearing a mask, said Sgt. Mary Ann Godawa, a police spokeswoman. Mouton grabbed her purse and ran out of the house, leaving through the same window he came in, Godawa said.

The victims, meanwhile, locked themselves in a back bedroom out of fear, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Crime-scene investigators swabbed for DNA on “a smudge of possible biological matter” from a broken pane of glass. Like in the previous arrests, the Louisiana State Police Crime lab linked Mouton’s DNA profile to the sample.

“Detectives are going back and re-visiting other cases with any similarities to the previous two arrests, as well as the unsolved incidents that occurred in Tara and Webb Park areas,” Godawa said. “Since this investigation is ongoing, we are still urging the public to continue to be aware and take all necessary precautions to ensure their personal safety.”

Mouton, who was paroled in June, has been in and out of prison the past 17 years. He has convictions for battery of a police officer, illegal possession of burglary tools and criminal trespassing, and most recently was sentenced to six years of hard labor in 2011 for burglary of an inhabited dwelling.